It took a while, but Ohio State eventually rolls past Michigan, 37-7; will likely get BCS bowl (but not the Rose)

View full sizeMarvin Fong / The Plain DealerJordan Hall's kickoff return for a touchdown gave Ohio State immediate breathing room after Michigan had closed the Buckeyes' lead to 10-7 midway through the second quarter. The Wolverines, who had dominated the game statistically to that point, never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State learned a valuable lesson during its seventh straight win over Michigan on Saturday.

The Buckeyes need to work on their celebrations.

While tying a Big Ten record by earning a share of its sixth straight conference title, Ohio State's 37-7 victory over the Wolverines was so thorough -- including a Jordan Hall kickoff return for a touchdown, 175 rushing yards from Dan Herron, 220 yards passing and two touchdowns from Terrelle Pryor and a defense that held Michigan 30 points under its scoring average -- that the biggest problems came in the end zone.

Ohio State was called three times for 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after players formed their hands into "O"s as the special Nike gloves that were part of their throwback uniforms were designed to do. After one call, the referee even explained to the fans that the call was for "giving a sign to the crowd."

Trying to explain why the officials kept flagging the Buckeyes was the only thing that furrowed the brow of Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who is now 9-1 against Michigan. The rest of the game gave Tressel and the No. 8 Buckeyes (11-1, 7-1 Big Ten) a lot to enjoy after sharing the conference crown with Wisconsin and Michigan State.

"What our guys enjoy and what our staff enjoys, we enjoy the journey," Tressel said. "It's the thrill of the challenge. It's hard to do. ... The process of chasing the championship, to me, is the fun."

That fun should lead Ohio State to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 4 with the Buckeyes' record, fan base and ability to draw TV ratings virtually assuring them of an at-large BCS bid. Wisconsin should claim the Big Ten's automatic Rose Bowl bid by finishing ahead of Ohio State in the final BCS standings next weekend.

The Sugar Bowl has the first pick of at-large teams and is unlikely to pass on Ohio State in favor of, for instance, a team like Michigan State. As for a potential opponent, if South Carolina upsets No. 2 Auburn in the SEC Championship next week, the Gamecocks would earn an automatic Sugar Bowl invite.

If Auburn wins and heads to the national title game, the Sugar Bowl would probably pick another SEC team to fill the spot, with 10-2 Arkansas the strongest candidate after beating LSU on Saturday.

The original dream was to reach the BCS National Championship in Glendale, Ariz., and Pryor was still saying "you never know, your never know," about those title dreams. Not gonna happen. But after losing at Wisconsin on Oct. 16, the Buckeyes' finished on a five-game winning streak while striving for the next best thing.

"We feel like we proved ourselves," senior receiver Dane Sanzenbacher said. "We're playing our best football at the end of the year, and we've been in some tough games, but we've been resilient. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been incredible. It hasn't been perfect, but I don't have any regrets."

Michigan (7-5, 3-5) and coach Rich Rodriguez have plenty of them, with the job status of the third-year coach expected to be the topic at hand in Ann Arbor this week.

"I can definitely understand the talk," Boren said. "When you've lost in this game, and he's lost three straight, I'm sure it's tough."

With the 112th-rated defense in the country, the Wolverines hung tough early, forcing Ohio State to punt after three plays on their first two drives and holding the game scoreless through the first quarter. Boren said the Buckeyes were coming to the line with two plays, checking into one and then watching Michigan shift its defense before the snap.

But once the pass game found its footing, and helped open up the run game, it was over.

"The defense played well and we finally got moving and got on the scoreboard and that was all she wrote," Pryor said.

After a Devin Barclay field goal early in the second quarter put Ohio State ahead, Pryor's seven-yard touchdown pass to Sanzenbacher increased the lead to 10-0 minutes later.

Inside The Vest

Jim Tressel isn't one for campaigning, and at this point, there's not much he can do.

His 11-1 football team isn't going to, and shouldn't, pass Wisconsin in the BCS standings to get the Big Ten's Rose Bowl berth. But there's also no way the Buckeyes will be denied an at-large BCS bid. He won't be the Big Ten coach of the year -- that's between Wisconsin's Bret Bielema and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio -- but after another Michigan win, Tressel could say that he liked his team.

"(We're) not good enough to be the outright Big Ten champions and automatic bid to the Rose Bowl and all those things that you shoot for, but we're pretty fair," Tressel said, "and I believe we're a top ten football team.

"Sometimes the ball bounces funny and you end up undefeated or you end up losing however many, and our guys just kept working and whatever came their way, they handled it and pressed on and handled adversity and handled success as it came.

"Really we've had 13 games in 2010. We played a pretty good Oregon team on the first day of the year, so it's been a lot of fun."

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Michigan answered with an 80-yard touchdown drive to cut the lead to 10-7, but when Hall returned the next kickoff 85 yards for a score and a 17-7 lead, Michigan's bubble burst.

"They worked very hard to go down and get their touchdown, and all of a sudden it took us 20 seconds to answer," Tressel said.

At Wisconsin, it was a Badgers' kickoff return for a touchdown on the first play of the game that began the Buckeyes' demise. This time, Ohio State's special teams turned the tide, and kept this rivalry right where it has been since Tressel came to Columbus -- firmly in the Buckeyes' hands.

Seven straight wins over Michigan. Six straight Big Ten titles, tying the streak set by the 1972-77 Buckeyes. And 11 wins against one loss.

"I'm very proud of that. After Wisconsin we could have laid down and died, but nobody on this team was going to do that," junior center Mike Brewster said. "This is the best season I've had here. My freshman year we had three losses, sophomore year we had two losses and this year we have one and we've got to keep it going. So 11-1, I can live with."

It leaves something for his senior year, too, a number of losses that would look a lot like the sign the Buckeyes were forming with their gloves.